Nisemono
by Marquise de Nile
Summary: Oneshot. During the war, in the middle of the night Sakura wakes up in alarm. SasuSaku.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

AN: So this is one of those ideas I had that didn't fit with any of the prompts to SasuSaku Month. Hope you enjoy!

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**Nisemono**

Sakura woke up in a snap, her green eyes flying wide open and her hand already clutching a kunai in a death grip. Sitting up, she scanned the inside of the medical tent, but nothing greeted her there besides the velvety darkness, stretching and encompassing it in silence. The kunoichi shook her head to get rid of the tiredness from the days of a non-stop healing creeping up on her. She needed her mind clear and sharp to cut through the shroud of night and sleepiness.

What woke her up?

Sakura concentrated, trying to remember what shook her awake from her well-deserved rest. It was a sudden feeling of danger, of being watched by someone hauntingly familiar...

A barely sensible flicker of a presence just outside the tent got her on her feet in a flash, instantly put on guard. She cautiously stepped closer to the flap of the tent without making a single sound, a kunai held at the ready in front of her in case of an unexpected attack.

Sakura tensed her body and sprang forward, whipping the entry flap open.

Nothing but darkness and faint outlines of other tents, visible thanks to the soft glow of a few lit lamps.

Sakura sighed, thinking that she must have dreamed something, though she still felt a little uneasy. Attributing it to the stress of being in the middle of the war for the future of the whole ninja world, she turned to go back to sleep.

She froze at the sight before her, her kunai clattering on the ground.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" she uttered, bewildered.

"Sakura," he responded evenly in this smooth, deep voice that unfailingly send shivers down her spine. He looked exactly like she remembered him from their last encounter on the bridge in Iron Country – dressed in a white zipped up shirt and black slacks with the purple rope-belt around his waist. However, his Sharingan wasn't activated and his stoic demeanor was a far cry from the crazed, hateful one he had displayed then.

Gathering her wits at the remembrance that he was now an enemy, Sakura assumed a fighting stance, determined to defend herself until the backup arrived to help her subdue the Uchiha. She wasn't naïve enough to think that she would be able to take him on alone in her exhausted state right now.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a clipped tone. "If you come quietly, I won't have to hurt you." It would be too easy if he surrendered himself, she knew, but she was allowed to hope.

Sasuke gave her one of those arrogant, charming smirks that simultaneously made her heart lurch in her chest and her hands clench tighter in a vicious want to strike him.

"I came here for you, Sakura," he said simply, throwing her completely off.

"What do you mean?" she demanded suspiciously, her mind whirring as she pondered what purpose he could have for seeking her out. Did he want to finish the job from Iron Country? Then why didn't he attack when she was unaware of his presence?

"You said you wanted to follow me. I'm giving you a second chance," he explained, looking at her with uncharacteristic softness, reminiscent of the few rare times he had let his guard down around her when they had been still innocent genins. "Come with me, Sakura," he lowered his voice to a mere whisper, which caressed her seductively.

Sakura's insides trembled from the sheer emotion she was trying so hard to suppress and bury under a mountain of fear and hurt Sasuke had caused her. How many times she longed to hear these words falling from his perfect lips? How many nights she dreamed about being at his side, supporting him, loving him because he wanted her there, needed her to be there for him? And now, it was really happening, her fantasy coming to life before her disbelieving but hopeful eyes.

_Come with me, Sakura..._

"Are you serious? What about the war? Do you still wish to destroy Konoha?" she fired off her doubts rapidly. She couldn't behave irrationally, not in this, it was too important not just for her but for her friends and practically everyone else fighting out there. _Sharp and calm_, she repeated a mantra in her head, _sharp and calm_.

"I was in a dark place, Sakura and I... thought. I really thought about my brother and what he would want me to do and I understood that I was just another tool for Madara to carry out his unreasonable old grudge against the First Hokage. I don't want to be a part of his madness," Sasuke revealed, sincerity shining in his expressive dark eyes and Sakura felt a pang of pain in her chest. She loved him so, so much...

She smiled shakily, relaxing her stance and took a step forward.

"Alright, Sasuke-kun, I'll come with you," she consented, unneeded tears gleaming in her eyes.

He smiled back and her heart stilled.

"Thank you, Sakura," he said in earnest. "Now we can be all a team again. Where is Naruto? Let's go meet with him," he suggested, looking at her anticipating that she would show him the way.

Sakura nodded, pointing him to the right and in the instant he turned in that direction, expecting her to follow, she was already on him.

With an angry, suffering, pained cry she swung her chakra-charged fist and landed a devastating punch on his head, taking it off his shoulders easily. The severed, gaping in astonishment extremity bounced and rolled a few meters away.

Sakura stood over the dead body, breathing heavily, her neck craned as she observed with cold, green eyes Sasuke's form melting away into the accursed white features of a Zetsu.

"As if I would go anywhere with such an obvious fake," she spat out.

The night guards hurried over to see what was the commotion and she shortly explained about another White Zetsu ploy. When they took the body to the lab, she returned to her tent.

As she was finally left alone, laying on her cot and trying to get back to sleep, the mask of professionalism slipped off and a few tears fell silently down her cheeks, concealed by the friendly darkness. Sakura muffled her sobs into the flat, hard pillow she had.

"Sasuke-kun," she murmured helplessly. Were her dreams of him doomed to always, always turn out to be just a fake?

With that thought weighing on her mind, she drifted off into uneasy slumber. She needed to preserve her strength for another day of war, to save lives and possibly confront the real Sasuke again.

Only time would tell.

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_AN2: So from my very limited, unprofessional knowledge of Japanese language, "nisemono" means a fake or a lie, hence the title._

_Any thoughts on this story are welcome! :)_


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